Read and posted in the Congressional Record by Congressman Steve King from the state of Iowa on January 14, 2009. Dr. Adrian Rogers is quoted:

“Friend, you cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. And what one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government can’t give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody. And when half of the people get the idea they don’t have to work because the other half’s going to take care of them, and when the other half get the idea it does no good to work because somebody’s going to get what I work for. That, dear friend, is about the end of any nation.”

Our F.B.C. family is in our “5 Great Sundays” leading up to Easter/Resurrection Sunday April 12. We have set our overall church goal to be 245 in Sunday School and 430 in Easter Worship. Our classes need to set individual goals to work, visit, invite, and telephone new people and those not attending.

On Sunday, 16 August 1987, Northwest Airlines flight 225 crashed just after taking off from Detroit Airport. One hundred and fifty-five people were killed. One survived: a four-year-old from Tempe, Arizona, named Cecelia.

News accounts say when rescuers found Cecelia they did not believe she had been a passenger but was in one of the cars on the highway onto which the airliner crashed. But when the passenger register for the flight was checked, there was Cecelia’s name. Cecelia survived because, as the plane was falling, Cecelia’s mother, Paula Chican, unbuckled her own seat belt, got down on her knees in front of her daughter, wrapped her arms and body around Cecelia, and then would not let her go.

Nothing could separate that child from her parent’s love - not tragedy or disaster, not the fall or the flames that followed, not height nor depth, not life nor death. Such is the love of our Saviour for us. He left heaven, lowered himself to us, and covered us with the sacrifice of his own body to save us.

The convictions Daniel and his three friends held were not by default. They had been taught the importance of their convictions, obviously from an early age. While many of their peers evidently conformed to the standards impressed upon them by the Babylonians, these young men stood firm upon their biblical convictions. If the young people who make up our families and churches are to do the same, we as adults must disciple them before society does.

1. At this point in your life do you stand firm upon biblical convictions? Do you need to ask God to strengthen you in this regard?

2. Do the people you mingle with at school, at work, and in the neighborhood recognize you as someone who is different because of your faith in God? What do you need to ask God to do in your life in order to be a light in the darkness?

3. If young people were to imitate your lifestyle, would their behavior be pleasing to the Lord? What changes are in order to improve your example before them?

4. How are you contributing to the discipleship of young people in your church? In what ways will you do so from this day forward?